S.S. Île-de-France: the First Art Deco Ocean Liner

For thirty-one years, the S.S. Île-de-France was one of the most widely recognized and popular ships in the world. Although her name became a byword for Art Deco design and jazz age luxury, her success was equally due to her role as a stage for political and diplomatic pageantry, contributions to the Allied effort during World War II, and her rescue missions. This book seeks not just to tell her story, but also to discover how the liner became one of the most politically and culturally significant ships of the twentieth century.

S.S. Île-de-France: the First Art Deco Ocean Liner is the first book that explores how the first major passenger ship designed and built after World War I became a cultural phenomenon. Her legendary Art Deco interiors were commissioned from artists and architects who were pioneers of French modernism—and were commissioned and assembled two years ahead of schedule so that they could be displayed in the 1925 Art Deco Exhibition in Paris alongside groundbreaking displays of modernism from the western world’s most prominent architects.

The liner’s role was equally a political one—an effort by her owners, the Compagnie Génerale Transatlantique to portray France as a leader among modern, liberal nations. She quickly became an ambassador of French culture across the Atlantic. Her extravagant Art Deco amenities wowed the public and made her the muse of authors, classical composers, Broadway playwrights, and film directors. Royalty, diplomats, business magnates, socialites, and starlets jostled for deluxe accommodation, while immigrants, tourists, and refugees filled the cheaper berths. Powerful stories from figures across the spectrum of twentieth century history all intersect in this ship, and sailing on board the Île-de-France became a statement of pride in French culture. Artists and passengers of color, such as Marian Anderson, found refuge on board from the racial prejudice they experienced from other shipping companies. William Bullitt, the American Ambassador to France, rescheduled diplomatic meetings in order sail on board. Ernest Hemingway favored the Île-de-France above all other liners, and viewed her as an eternal manifestation of the French spirit. Her popularity took on a life of its own in both Europe and particularly America, and she became a pop culture phenomenon: her name appeared in songs and her image on movie screens. By the 1930s, New York society matrons were throwing Île-de-France-themed parties at hotels and country clubs. This international reputation was cemented during World War II when she became the only large French ship to serve the Allied cause, sailing around the globe, usually alone, on dangerous transport missions carrying thousands of people. During the 1950s, she saved hundreds of lives across the course of twelve high seas rescue missions, earning rare honors from the French, American, and British governments. Most of these episodes from the Île-de-France’s career have never before been published.

This project is the first book-length treatment of the career and legacy of the Île-de-France to use primary archival sources on the subject, much of which has never before been published. It offers a unique approach to material culture studies that, by and large, has not been extended to ocean liners over the past forty years of scholarship.